The father of a missing Hendersonville teenager has filed a separate federal lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, alleging the agency investigated his son’s home twice on allegations of sexual and physical abuse, closed both cases with findings of “no concerns” and “no services needed,” and did not act even after formally determining the boy was at “serious or imminent risk of removal” from the home.
Seth Rogers filed the first amended complaint July 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, Case No. 3:26-cv-981, on his own behalf and as next friend of his son, identified in court papers as S.W.D.R. The suit names DCS, Commissioner Margie Quin, and three individual caseworkers, Lesley Keele Ritchie, Laura Boswell, and Amira J. Walker, along with unnamed DCS employees. It is a companion case to a separate lawsuit Rogers filed against the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office over the same disappearance.
Sebastian Rogers, then 15, disappeared from his mother and stepfather’s Hendersonville home on February 26, 2024. He has Autism Spectrum Disorder, severe combined-type ADHD, and 6q27 chromosome deletion syndrome, and was receiving therapy, medication management, and neurology care at the time he went missing. He remains missing nearly two years later.
According to the complaint, DCS’s Child Abuse Hotline received a call on September 28, 2022, after Sebastian disclosed to a school professional that, roughly two years earlier while living in California, another child had sexually abused him, including forced oral and anal contact, over a period of weeks. Sebastian said the abuse happened when he was 10 or 12 and that the other child had threatened to end their friendship if he told anyone or refused.
The intake documented that Sebastian said he was afraid of what his stepfather, Christopher Proudfoot, would do if he found out, and that Proudfoot had used corporal punishment on him before. Caseworker Laura Boswell interviewed Sebastian at school and during a home visit, and interviewed his mother, Katie Proudfoot, and Christopher Proudfoot separately. Katie Proudfoot told Boswell she didn’t understand why DCS kept getting called and gave the family’s prior California address. Christopher Proudfoot denied ever spanking Sebastian, a statement the complaint says directly conflicted with the boy’s own account.
On November 3, 2022, the case was presented to the Sumner County Child Protective Investigative Team, a multi-agency body that includes Juvenile Court, Ashley’s Place Child Advocacy Center, an assistant district attorney, and law enforcement. Supervisor Amira Walker approved the case for closure on November 15, 2022, classified as “Unable to Complete” because the abuse had occurred out of state.
A second hotline call came in May 3, 2023, alleging Proudfoot had made comments about pushing Sebastian into a wall and had hit him in the belly. Boswell returned to the home on May 8, 2023, and Sebastian told her Proudfoot required him to wear a belt every day and had struck him in the stomach with the back of his hand when he wasn’t wearing one. According to the complaint, Proudfoot admitted to the same conduct, telling Boswell he “whacked” Sebastian and explaining the belt requirement was tied to Sebastian needing to wear pull-ups. Katie Proudfoot told Boswell she had no concerns about the incident.
Team Leader Lesley Keele Ritchie closed the case on May 11, 2023, as “No Services Needed,” noting the family had denied any concerns and that a completed safety assessment showed no need for intervention. The complaint alleges DCS never contacted or interviewed Rogers, Sebastian’s biological father and joint legal custodian, during this investigation, despite Sebastian telling Boswell he felt safe at his father’s home in Clarksville. The complaint states DCS also never offered to place Sebastian with Rogers during the investigation.
The complaint places particular weight on a formal determination, made in connection with both the 2022 and 2024 assessments, that Sebastian met criteria for the Title IV-E Candidacy Program, a federal foster-care designation for children found to be at “serious or imminent risk of removal from their home.” The complaint alleges DCS made this finding and left Sebastian in the home regardless. It also cites law enforcement documentation that Sebastian’s therapist had described him as “sexually aggressive” with “frequent bathroom accidents” as a result of the earlier abuse, that law enforcement had separately noted he expressed “some homicidal thoughts,” and that neighbors had reported Proudfoot said he “hated the child and wanted the child to die.”
Sebastian was reported missing February 26, 2024. The complaint states an AMBER Alert was issued more than 48 hours later. A DCS Safety Assessment was opened March 1, 2024, and a FAST 2.0 risk assessment was completed March 5, 2024, roughly nine months after the second abuse case had been closed with a finding of “no services needed.”
The amended complaint raises six causes of action: a Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for deliberate indifference and state-created danger; a separate Fourteenth Amendment claim based on a special relationship DCS is alleged to have created through its repeated, direct involvement with the family; a claim that DCS’s conduct deprived Rogers of his protected liberty interest in his son’s care and custody; failure to train and supervise, against Quin, Ritchie, and Walker; negligence and gross negligence; and intentional infliction of emotional distress, against Ritchie, Quin, and Walker individually.
Rogers is seeking compensatory damages of at least $15 million, punitive damages against the individual defendants, an injunction requiring DCS to reopen the investigation with adequate resources and adopt mandatory communication requirements with families under investigation, attorneys’ fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, and a jury trial.
The complaint, like the Sheriff’s Office lawsuit, was filed by attorney Darren M. Richie of DRE, A.P.C. in Brentwood, Tennessee. DCS and the named individual defendants had not filed a response in court as of this writing.
Sebastian Rogers remains missing.
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